The First Knitters of Yore Celebrity Special!

Trust Woman's Mirror to be on top of the burning issues of the day - that day being some point in the mid-1960s. From this fascinating artifact we can discover the knitwear preferences of a host of household names. Some of these are now forgotten, but a select few have become showbusiness legends.

Definitely in the latter category is Peter Finch, the Australian actor who would become the first performer ever to win a posthumous Oscar for his barnstorming turn in the 1976 film Network. Of more importance than this from the point of view of Kntters of Yore is that Finch can't resist a pink jumper.

Although he never attracted the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, dancer and general purpose celebrity Lionel Blair remained a firm favourite of the British public over a long career until his death in 2001 at the age of 92. One riddle remained throughout Lionel's life - what would a girl have to do to attract Blair's roving eye? If only they had looked through the Woman's Mirror back catalogue they would have discovered the answer: fluffy sweaters.

Terence Brook's time in the spotlight somewhat passed me by, but when I googled him it turns out he was a jobbing actor who died in 1990. Not only that, but in 1960 he appeared in one of my favourite bad movies, the Gerry Anderson-directed b-picture Crossroads to Crime. For more information on that film, you can't do better than consult my book The Worlds of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson For the record, Terence liked an outdoors girl in a fine cardigan.


Jack Jackson was what passed for a teen sensation in Britain's 1950's media. To be fair, this former trumpeter and bandleader went on to become an innovative radio presenter, cutting in surreal comedy clips and using pre-recorded tapes in ways which were an inspiration to the young Kenny Everett. He was even one of the original DJs on BBC Radio One back in 1967, The Jack Jackson Show broadcasting at 1pm f4om tapes he sent in from his home in Tererife. Our Jack turns out also to be a big fan of the cable-knit sweater.


Jackie Rae was a Canadian singer and gameshow presenter who was as this point married to the glamorous British actress Jeanette Scott (though not for much longer, as they divorced in 1965).  His main claim to at least a footnote in British showbusiness history is as the original host of the game-show The Golden Shot for ATV in 1967. Half way through the first series he was replaced by Bob Monkhouse, who had been a guest on the tenth episode, and the show went on to great success. Here Jackie can be seem (rather worryingly) admiring a teenager.



Dennis Lotis was a very popular singer with the Ted Heath band (not the 1970s Prime Minister) who also maintained quite a decent acting career on both stage and screen. I can particularly recommend his 1960 film City of the Dead, which is now regarded as something of a minor horror classic. You can read more about City of the Dead in my book about British Horror Movies, while I'm busy publicising the old back catalogue: https://amzn.eu/d/79qtSNB. Here we see Dennis during what art critics would describe as his blue period.

Alan Whicker was an absolute fixture on British television from the 1950s to the 1990s. A huge figure in Britain for his travel documentaries featuring the rich and famous, he would have been pretty well unknown elsewhere were it not for Monty Python's affectionate parody of his presenting style in their Whicker's Island sketch. Such a seasoned world-traveller was able to tell the women of Britain the secret of chic dressing.

Andy Capp had been a star of the Daily Mirror since 1957, cartoonist Reg Smythe's creation being syndicated worldwide. The character has continued even after the death of Smythe in 1997, and the strip is still produced up to the present day, though Andy and his wife Flo have noticeably fewer episodes of domestic violence these days. There was even a live-action Andy Capp TV series in 1988 with James Bolam as the Hartlepool layabout, written by esteemed novelist Keith Waterhouse.

Despite appearing to only have one outfit of his own, Andy Capp seems to be a man of taste, approving of this lovely deep purple sweater, which is probably my own favourite outfit of this collection. How could the Mirror possibly follow Andy Capp? With Terry-Thomas, of course.

By this point (I don't have a date for this magazine but it must be circa 1963/64) Terry-Thomas was a popular guest star and occasional leading man in British films. He would in the years to follow become a true international star, representing a certain type of disreputable, upper-class Britishness. He worked a lot in both America and Italy, which made his ultimate fate all the more tragic, his life destroyed by Motor Neurone Disease.

Here Terry-Thomas shows frightfully good taste and gets quite hot under the collar at the sight of this very model with her pink cardigan. 

Jolly good show!

 




Donald Pleasance is simply wild with enthusiasm at the prospect of knitting a jumper for his lucky wife, while Bernard Bresslaw is a sucker for a girl in yellow. For more on Bernie and the rest of the Carry On crew, see my latest book, Carrying On. You can relax now, I've nothing left to plug.

Bernie's Carry On co-star Sid James, at this point a huge British comedy star from his work with Tony Hancock, had more of a yen for girls in red (it says here), while Dickie Henderson, a great entertainer not much remembered now, likes them in pairs, the old dog!

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